Direct quote from Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter:

"A terrible thing happened. I realized I'd joined the wrong mob."

Mobster Lucky Luciano said that after he visited the floor of the NYSE where someone explained to him the role of the floor specialist.  We can avoid repeating Luciano's mistake by owning XLF!
(XLF is an ETF that I have bought and sold for nice profit over the years.)

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	FWC: Goldman Sachs Ripped Off And Misled Clients, Senate Report Says
Date:	Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:32:08 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

FWC: Goldman Sachs Ripped Off And Misled Clients, Senate Report Says

"Goldman's conduct in the two years leading up to the near-implosion of the financial system show a firm dedicated to "sticking it to their own clients," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the panel that produced the report. "Goldman gained at the expense of their clients, and used abusive practices to do it.""

First, thank you, Sen. Levin, for digging the dirt on the most powerful fraudster in America, Goldman Sachs (I coined the term Goldchain Silverknife, based on the history of the firm, when America's Financial Fuehrer, Robert Rubin, became the Treasury Secretary). The very fact that it is referred to as "Government Sachs" on CNBC tells you how corrupt the American econo-political system has become. Those bred in the culture of deception, fraud, and manipulation feel right at home at GS, e.g., Jim Cramer. And if one is not bred in that culture, he, or she, is trained in the art to succeed at GS. Making money honestly is for simpletons and not for the "smart" folk in Ameirca. When Lloyd Blankfein, a face of evil in America together with Ben Bernanke, claims to "do God's work" you know what he really mean (the art of deception)—Satan rules over America unopposed. Systemic financial bloodsucking is their favorite pastime.

Jas

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/goldman-sachs-levin-investigation_n_849708.html

 

Goldman Sachs Ripped Off And Misled Clients, Senate Report Says

 

Goldman Sachs, the nation's fifth-largest bank by assets, systematically misled clients, sold them financial instruments it knew to be junk, bet against them and profited off of their losses, according to a Senate report released this week.

The report, the product of a two-year investigation, paints the firm as Exhibit A of Wall Street's evolution from a place that raises and deploys capital to worthy businesses into a vulturous creature that preys on unwitting investors.

Goldman's conduct in the two years leading up to the near-implosion of the financial system show a firm dedicated to "sticking it to their own clients," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the panel that produced the report. "Goldman gained at the expense of their clients, and used abusive practices to do it."

In 2006 and 2007, Goldman recorded more than $21 billion in profit thanks to a strategy that ensured earnings as the housing bubble inflated and then popped. It also dodged a loss in 2008 -- one of the few firms to do so -- during a year that saw the demise of three of its direct competitors.

The "abusive" tactics the firm employed helped gain those winnings, according to the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. While Goldman was betting -- or "shorting," in Wall Street parlance -- that securities would collapse, clients were on the losing end.

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